As I mentioned in a previous post, the paper our fetal specialist, Sina Haeri, wrote about the amnioinfusions we had during our pregnancy with Conley, was recently released. It was also co-authored by our nephrologist, Kartik Pillulta. And get this, the DAY the editor gave Dr. Haeri the green light to publish the paper was March 18, 2016 (though it was officially released later). But, seriously?! I do believe in coincidences at times, but not this time. This meant something; no doubt. That same day our beautiful Conley became an angel at 2AM, he started helping others on their journey. Conley's legacy lives on, as will his buddy's Barrett, who is the other kiddo discussed in this paper. Barrett is still doing well on peritoneal dialysis and is on the transplant list!!
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| A picture of Dr. Haeri and his boys, Barrett and Conley. |
To give you some background for the paper, since it is definitely written for the medical community, I found some excerpts from previous blog posts. If you want more information, feel free to read back to earlier blog posts.
December 22, 2014
During our 20-week anatomy ultrasound, we found out that Conley was diagnosed with a bladder obstruction called a Posterior Urethral Valve obstruction (PUV). Initially, his bladder was full, but he was unable to urinate, leading to a back-up into his renal system, mainly his kidneys. Over the course of the first couple weeks, we found out that Conley was actually able to urinate, and that the obstruction was considered "partial." However, it had appeared that the damage to his kidneys had already been done, as he was not creating new urine at all. Starting at 20 weeks, babies need to urinate in order to produce amniotic fluid; however, given that Conley was not producing urine, he was unable to create amniotic fluid, which is needed for growth and lung development. At this point, we knew that Conley had some kidney damage; however, the extent of the damage could not be adequately measured until his birth. We knew that there was a possibility for dialysis and eventually a kidney transplant.
Given the complications with low amniotic fluid, I had to be monitored on a weekly basis, having multiple ultrasounds to make sure that Conley was doing okay. I also had several (5 to be exact) amnioinfusions, which is a process where saline is injected into my uterus every couple weeks in order to make sure that Conley had enough room to continue building his lungs and growing adequately. Three of these procedures included spinal blocks, as any one of them could have induced labor. We are lucky that every procedure went well, and we were able to give Conley the tools he needed to build his lungs, while all along allowing me to continue living life at home. I had my last amnioinfusion at 30 weeks. It was not possible to continue the amnioinfusions past this marker as the risks were greater than the benefits. It was a blessing that we were able to do this much for Conley, and mommy was able to stay at home with the boys and continue "regular" life as scheduled.
February 19, 2015
Oh, and one more HUGE victory. Conley was finally taken off oxygen support and is now breathing room air on his own. This is such a great step and very comforting for momma as this is the reason I had all of those procedures (amnioinfusions) throughout my pregnancy. Hopefully, we won't have to worry about his lungs anymore unless an excess of fluid starts to put pressure on them. The doctors were saying that it was good that Conley had a "good set of lungs" so that he could maintain some healthy respiratory status when he was overloaded with fluid. Phew. Great news. He is breathing comfortably now and it is amazing to see his beautiful face now. Though, he still loves his pacifier so much that he won't give it up unless he is eating!
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